How to buy launch services
A launch contract is bought against a licence, a manifest and an interface document. The licence is public, the manifest is not, and the interface document is where the schedule really lives.
This category covers launch vehicles and the services sold around them: dedicated launch, rideshare, and the integration work between a spacecraft and a rocket. The satellite itself and its subsystems are separate guides. A buyer here is purchasing a date, an environment and a set of obligations, and only one of those three appears prominently in the marketing.
The licence is the thing to check first
A vehicle operator licence authorises a licensee to conduct one or more launches or reentries using the same vehicle or family of vehicles, and the rules set out how it is obtained and maintained, including the means of compliance, the policy review, the payload review and determination, and the safety review and approval.1 The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation publishes the current active licences, permits and approvals it has issued.2 That register is a genuine diligence tool. It tells you whether a provider is licensed, for what, and from where. It does not tell you the vehicle's flight record, the manifest ahead of you, or whether your slot will hold.
What actually decides your schedule
Ask for the flight history of the exact configuration, including anomalies and what changed afterwards. Ask how many missions are manifested ahead of yours and what the provider's stated policy is when an earlier customer slips. Ask what the launch window is, how often it recurs, and what happens if you miss it. Ask for the interface control document early, because that document, not the contract, is where the mechanical, electrical and environmental commitments live. Ask for the coupled loads analysis schedule and who performs it. Ask what the separation environment is and what shock the spacecraft will see. For a rideshare, ask who your neighbours are in terms of hazards rather than names, and what the deployment sequence is.
The obligations you take on
Ask what insurance is required, who procures it, and what the liability allocation is between you, the provider and the government. Ask what the range and site requirements mean for your team's access, and how many people you can have on site. Export control reaches the hardware and the conversation: spacecraft and launch vehicles are enumerated on the munitions list, and items not described there may fall under the export regulations administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security, which publishes classification guidance and the Consolidated Screening List.3,4 Ask which regime your spacecraft sits under before you ship it to a foreign launch site, and ask the provider what agreements are already in place.
Questions that sort providers
Ask for the licence and check it against the published list. Ask for the last three missions' actual launch dates against the dates first contracted. Ask for the interface control document and the environments before signing. Ask what the termination and re-flight terms are if the vehicle fails.
Sources, in the order cited
- 1Electronic Code of Federal Regulations · 14 CFR Part 450, Launch and Reentry License Requirements
- 2Federal Aviation Administration · Licenses, permits and approvals issued by the Office of Commercial Space Transportation
- 3Electronic Code of Federal Regulations · 22 CFR Part 121, The United States Munitions List
- 4US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security · The Export Administration Regulations and the classification tools